Abstract

Christian thinking about religious pluralism has produced a variety of conceptual models which are used to account for, comprehend, or engage with the religious other. This seminar will offer a critical review of some of the theological strategies that have been constructed to engage positively with inter-religious relations. Some of these strategies are well-known to students of religion (e.g. the famous exclusivist, inclusivist and pluralist paradigm), however new strategies have emerged in the last few decades that offer a greater variety of approaches, including comparative theology and theologies of ritual or aesthetics. As well as considering these approaches, this lecture will go on to present a new proposal that is based on an emerging conversation between continental and analytic philosophy of religion, particularly the influential work of Jean-Luc Marion.

About the Speaker

David Cheetham completed his doctoral studies on the work of John Hick. He then became a Research Assistant in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Glasgow. He has held a number of academic positions, including posts in theology and the philosophy of religion at the University of Worcester (1995) and Newman University College (1996-99). In 1999, he was appointed as Lecturer in Theology and Inter-religious Relations at Birmingham University, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007, and Reader in Philosophical Theology in 2014. He was Head of the Department of Theology and Religion 2012-15, and then Head of the School of Philosophy, Theology, and Religion 2016-2020. He was promoted to Professor in 2020.